Charlie Hunnam plays a Kai in “Rebel Moon,” a mercenary who joins Kora (Sofia Boutella) and her band of rebels as they fight the tyranny of the Motherworld. In a play for dominance, the Motherworld’s soldiers invade the moon of Veldt, where its sadistic leader, Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein), and his group immediately brutalize members of a peaceful farming settlement. Triggered by a specific attack on a vulnerable resident, Kora employs her lethal set of fighting skills, which raises a red flag to the Motherworld and forces the warrior to reveal her dark past.
“Rebel Moon” has a past of its own, as Zack Snyder originally pitched the story to Lucasfilm as something that could fit into the framework of its “Star Wars” universe. Lucasfilm passed, but the rejection galvanized Snyder to create a sci-fi epic of his own. As such, Hunnam was thrilled for the opportunity to become a part of something original in Hollywood without the baggage from an existing property hanging over his or his fellow actors’ heads.
“Because Zack had been dreaming of this universe for so long and knew it so thoroughly, all of the worrying was outsourced to Zack,” Hunnam said. “Once we showed up, we realized he wasn’t worrying at all — he was having the greatest time of his life, and he was inviting us in — and nobody needed to be precious. Nobody needed to be beholden to the script or any preconceived notion. It was chaos in the best way. I’ve very seldom been on a set that felt so free and so genuinely collaborative and all about the love of whatever we were doing in that moment.”
“Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire” is streaming exclusively on Netflix.
